Upon her center pois'd; when on a day (For time, though in eternity, apply'd To motion, measures all things durable

580

By prefent, paft, and future) on fuch day

As Heav'n's great year brings forth, th' empyreal host
Of Angels by imperial fummons call'd,

Innumerable before th' Almighty's throne
Forthwith from all the ends of Heav'n appear'd
Under their Hierarchs in orders bright:
Ten thousand thousand enfigns high advanc'd,
Standards and gonfalons 'twixt van and rear
Stream in the air, and for diftinction serve

585

590 Of

from the refolutions taken in the infernal council, or in its more remote beginning, as proceeding from the first revolt of the Angels in

Heaven. The occafion which Milton affigns for this revolt, as it is founded on hints in holy Writ, and on the opinion of fome great writers, fo it was the most proper that the poet could have made ufe of. The revolt in Heaven is defcribed with great force of imagination, and a fine variety of circumitances. Addifon.

579. Upon her center pois'd;] Ponderibus librata fuis, as Ovid fays Met. I. 13. or as Milton elfewhere expreffes it, VII. 242.

583. As Heav'n's great year] Our poet feems to have had Plato's great year in his thoughts.

Magnus ab integro feclorum na

fcitur ordo. Virg. Ecl. IV. 5.

-Et incipient magni procedere

menfes. Ecl. IV. 12. Hume.

Plato's great year of the Heavens is the revolution of all the fpheres. Every thing returns to where it fet out when their motion firit began. See Aufon. Idyl. XVIII. 15. A proper time for the declaration of the vicegerency of the Son of God. Milton has the fame thought for the birth of the Angels (ver. 851.) imagining fuch kind of revolutions long before the Angels or the worlds were in being. So far back

And Earth felf-balanc'd on her into eternity did the vaft mind of

center hung.

this poet carry him! Richardfon. 583.-th

Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees;
Or in their glittering tiffues bear imblaz'd
Holy memorials, acts of zeal and love
Recorded eminent. Thus when in orbs
Of circuit inexpreffible they ftood,
Orb within orb, the Father infinite,
By whom in bliss imbosom'd fat the Son,
Amidst as from a flaming mount, whose top
Brightness had made invisible, thus fpake.

595

600

Hear all ye Angels, progeny of light, Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers, Hear my decree, which unrevok'd shall stand.

This day I have begot whom I declare

My only Son, and on this holy hill

Him have anointed, whom ye now behold
At my right hand; your head I him appoint;
And by myself have fworn to him shall bow

All knees in Heav'n, and fhall confefs him Lord:
Under his great vice-gerent reign abide
United as one individual foul

For ever happy: Him who disobeys,

Me disobeys, breaks union, and that day
Caft out from God and bleffed vifion, falls
Into' utter darkness, deep ingulf'd, his place
Ordain'd without redemption, without end.

So fpake th' Omnipotent, and with his words All feem'd well pleas'd; all feem'd, but were not all. That

That day, as other folemn days, they spent
In fong and dance about the facred hill;
Mystical dance, which yonder starry sphere
Of planets and of fix'd in all her wheels
Resembles neareft, mazes intricate,

620

Eccentric, intervolv'd, yet regular

Then most, when most irregular they seem;
And in their motions harmony divine

625

So fmooths her charming tones, that God's own ear
Liftens delighted. Evening now approach'd

(For we have alfo' our evening and our morn,
We ours for change delectable, not need)
Forthwith from dance to fweet repaft they turn 630
Defirous; all in circles as they stood,
Tables are fet, and on a fudden pil'd

With Angels food, and rubied nectar flows
In pearl, in diamond, and maffy gold,

Fruit of delicious vines, the growth of Heaven. 635
On flow'rs repos'd, and with fresh flow'rets crown'd,
They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet
Quaff immortality and joy, fecure

Of furfeit where full measure only bounds

641

Excefs, before th' all-bounteous King, who show'r'd
With copious hand, rejoicing in their joy.
Now when ambrofial night with clouds exhal'd

633.rubied near] Nectar of the color of rubies; a tranflation of Homer's ventap epubpov. Iliad. XIX. 38.

- αμβροσίην και νικίας ερυθρόν.

and Odyff. V. 93.

- παρέθηκε τραπεζαν
Αμβρόσιος πλησασα, κέρασσε δε νεκ
παρ ερυθρόν.

634. In pearl, &c.] This feaft of the Angels is much richer than the banquet of the Gods in Homer's Iliad, IV. 3. Homer's Gods drink nectar in golden cups xpucos dec; but here the nectar flows in pearl, in diamond, and mafly geld.

637. They eat, they drink, &c.]

In the first edition it was thus,

They eat, they drink, and with refection fweet

From

Are fill'd, before th' all-bounteous
King,

In the fecond edition the author alter'd it and added as follows,

They eat they drink, and in communion sweet

Quaff immortality and joy, fecure
Of furfeit where full measure only
bounds

Excefs, before th' all-bounteous
King,

Dr. Bentley is for restoring the former reading, but we think that in communion fweet gives a much better idea than with refection fawcet. drink largely and plentifully of imTo quaff immortality and joy, to mortal joy, is a very poetical expreffion, and plainly alluding to Pfal. XXXVI. 8, 9. Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleaJures, for with thee is the fountain of

· life,